Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Wheelchair User in Wisconsin Forced to Vote at Bottom of Stairs Without Secret Ballot

A disabled Milwaukee retiree says she was deprived of her right to a secret ballot Tuesday, and it started with an inoperable wheelchair lift.

"This particular situation is the most serious situation we've run across in the last few years," said Reid Magney, a spokesman with the Government Accountability Board.

Marsha Valance, 66, said the handicapped lift at Juneau High School in Milwaukee was out of order when she arrived with her walker about 7:10 a.m. Tuesday. Because she couldn't get up the stairs, she called out for a poll worker. A worker subsequently carried her ballot downstairs to her without a sleeve and handed the ballot and a pencil to her. Leaning against her walker, she filled out the ballot at the bottom of the stairs just inside the door with no privacy.

"I saw the poll worker reading it as he carried it back upstairs," Valance said in an interview Tuesday. "It's a matter of the right to vote a secret ballot. I got to vote, but it wasn't secret. I just think that's so outrageous."